“This season, I really wanted us to challenge ourselves to take a much bigger swing than we had before,” Rich said. “Fortunately I work for John Landgraf; I asked his permission to completely reboot our show. I wanted it to be way more ambitious this year. Instead of focusing on issues like blind dates and office crushes, I wanted to examine an adult relationship from inception to wedding day, to be completely serialized, and at least half of the episodes to feature a female protagonist.”

Rich said he also asked to “expand to show’s world,” doubling the cast and bringing in new writers and directors. Rich reported that Landgraf’s response was:”Cool.”

Katie Findlay, who plays Jay Baruchel’s love interest this season, reports “the internet is really excited” about her casting. Only, having previously played the titular murder victim in AMC’s The Killing as well as other gone-too-soon characters, “half of them are convinced I’m going to die.”